Sepultura – Arise (1991)

Super Awesome South America logo by Sarca @ caughtmegaming

Made in South America Artist #1: Astrud Gilberto
Made in South America Artist #2: Bebel Gilberto
Made in South America Artist #3: Elis Regina
Made in South America Artist #4: Sepultura

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(Starting at 1:30)

Will: “I wanna be just like Steven Seagal”
Mr. Yoshi: “Oh. You want to be a bad actor?”
– Fresh Prince of Belair, S5E9

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[Album 475/1001]

Does anyone else have Seagal on the brain when listening to Sepultura?

I can now sympathize with Kylie Minogue (or at least her fittingly-titled 2001 ear worm single), I just couldn’t get him out of my head.

1. The opener, Arise, didn’t contain an ounce of Oklahoma-esque, Oh What a Beautiful Morning cheerfulness. A Sepultura daybreak felt more like a Black Dawn.

2. Dead Embroyonic Cells – The lyric “We’re born, with pain, no more, we’re dead,” to go along with an abrupt track ending? Marked for Death,from the start.

3. Desperate Cry – I approve of the Executive Decision to change gears at the 3-minute mark, the brief second-half guitarmonies are executed forcefully, with a Force of Execution.

4. Murder – That double kick-pedal, the killer riffs. Even if you’re Driven to Kill, it’s Hard to Kill when Out for a Kill at such speeds, without the aid of a Kill Switch. Killing Salazar.

5. Subtraction – “First generation born,” it appears the narrator here is The Foreigner? Or perhaps merely the first of his generation Born to Raise Hell?

6. Altered State – Another deadly opening riff, starting the track On Deadly Ground. From what I’ve read, it appears lead guitarist Andreas Kisser is A Dangerous Man with an electric guitar but A Good Man off-stage. I was unable to determine his status as a Shadow Man &/or The Glimmer Man, but man, he can play either way.

7. Under Siege – Hmm. Not sure if Seagal’s done a film that explores Dark Territory quite like this track.

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8. Meaningless Movements – With all the quick starts & stops, Sepultura doesn’t miss a metronome Ticker beat. So I suppose a salute to the The Keeper of the beat is in order, the rhythm section (Igor Cavalera and Paulo Jr.) that successfully steers the band here through another Flight of Fury.

9. Infected Voice – Despite the track title, I don’t think anyone will accuse vocalist Max Cavalera of phoning anything in. He always vocalizes with Maximum Conviction, leaving listeners with Exit Wounds following this intense closer.

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I imagine listener reactions to Sepultura might be also be correlated to viewer reactions to Steven Seagal.

For every amateur guitarist (or every Will Smith above) that strives to be more like one of her/his all-time heroes, there’s likely another (or another Pat Morita above) that sees Sepultura as long-haired aggression to be avoided.

But for Sepultura fans, Arise is Above the Law of diminishing returns & in terms of being surpassed by any new release, this one’s likely Out of Reach.

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Dedicated to a pair of fellow bloggers, J (of In Seagal We Trust) and Jordan (of the Seagalmania series)

And even if you don’t have an In Sepultura We Trust twitter feed or host a Sepulturamania series, feel free to comment below with any relevant songs/films I’ve inexcusably overlooked!